Need a steering wheel controlled toddler mister. After a long but fun morning playing with Cool Older Kids while we made some homemade food gifts for some of the wives on the boat, she fell asleep in the car coming home. Of course that turned into a 10 minute nap. Hasn't slept a wink since, it's almost 6. Plus there were like 6 other kids running around and now I have the world's biggest headache. I mean, they were well behaved, I'm just not used to that much noise! Plus without her nap V has been a bear all afternoon.

We went to a friends baseball game today and there was a playground attached to the baseball fields. Grey was dying to go over to the playground and to the soccer fields to watch the older kids. I didn't like the looks of the playground from far off, didn't seem toddler friendly. I finally let him go and my instinct was right. First, it was so busy and all older kids. Where we live the older kids are almost universally nice and patient with the little kids, so this was a little surprising to me (we were not in our town). A big kids, I would guess 7 pushed grey, when grey didn't move far enough he pushed him again and thankfully I got there in time or grey would have fallen off a play structure about 5 feet high. What the hell! And what a crasshole kid. Maybe I am lucky that the kids near us are better behaved or maybe that kid was just a crasshole.

That sucks, littlebear. I'm used to our regular playground where the kids are generally great but whenever we go to the park near my parents' house it's like the Thunderdome.

So my vent: Last week my husband was packing Inez into the bike trailer to take her to swim class and he accidentally pinched her with the clip on her helmet. Cue complete freakout (they ended up taking the car to the pool). Now every day she talks about how her helmet is "too owie" and how Daddy hurt her. Attempting to put the helmet on results in screaming and floods of tears. We bought her a Strider today (she's been really interested in bikes and was super excited about it) but - surprise, surprise - refused to wear the helmet and therefore can't ride the bike. I know she'll get over it eventually but I wish there was a way to make a 2-year old understand that it was a one time accident and her bike helmet is not suddenly some bear trap style torture device. Sigh. And my bike-loving husband is so bummed and feels really bad.

you might find a bit of relief if you get a bit of fleece [soft flat fleece or the fluffy stuff] and fold/glue/sew it like a little tube to put around the clickety part. its a fluffy distraction, basically, that enabled us to get my daughter's helmet on after the same sort of accident when just seeing the helmet caused screams.

She just hit me in the upper lip with the spine of a board book (which hurts far more than it sounds like it should). Damn it, it's a miracle this kid hasn't knocked out any of my teeth yet.

Yowww ak.

M gave me a black eye recently by whacking his face into my cheekbone... that just stopped being tender after several weeks. Then last night in the middle of the night, he head-whacked me again right on the forehead. Dang that kid has a hard skull.

These are the times when I wish my husband were around the most, because I'll admit that I get pretty pissed off when that stuff happens and just have to walk away for like 5 minutes so I don't yell at her as she laughs her head off while I check to see if I'm bleeding.

She just hit me in the upper lip with the spine of a board book (which hurts far more than it sounds like it should). Damn it, it's a miracle this kid hasn't knocked out any of my teeth yet.

My kids actually knocked me in the mouth so many times, my tooth chipped. It wasn't the first time it had chipped, but after all the chipping it's been through, the corner fell off, so I finally got it bonded. They whack and head-butt me in the mouth so much, it kind of drives me crazy. Most of the time it isn't on purpose, but still...

I swear, it's a wonder we survive. I don't know how many injuries I've received during my professional childcare days. Freya's given me two bloody noses so far. We also had one of those chin meets head incidents in the bathroom one day where I saw stars and sorta blacked out for about 15 seconds...that was a real riot. Trying to keep conscious and make sure that she didn't run out the bathroom door and fall down the stairs and kill herself. Another favorite was her trying to pass me her (surprisingly hard) baby doll and hitting me in the forehead, which left a nice purple bruise.

Henry's been sick since Wednesday, today his fever broke but he still slept terribly last night and was cranky this morning. During breakfast he started screaming, and our landlady (who lives downstairs) called us to complain about the noise. I get that it sucks to listen to, trust me. I'm sorry that people downstairs were sleeping, but it was almost 8:30 am. She had the audacity to start a sentence with "it's not that I think you guys are bad parents, but..." This is the fourth apartment we've been in in 5 years, but I feel like there's no way we can sign a new lease at this place. Like this week wasn't stressful enough.

GOD, that is SO RUDE. People are so weird about crying kids. Like we parents love it or something. "I don't know about you, but mornings are SO much better when my kids spend a few hours crying!" /sarcasm.

P.S. Moving all the time sucks!!! We did 5 moves in maybe 5 years once and it was awful. We've been at our place for 5 years (I was pregnant with Beetroot when we moved here), which is the longest I've lived anywhere since I was a kid, and it is really nice to not have to think about packing up all our stuff for once. (We will have to move once Mr Crabby finishes school so he can get a job or do his master's, but that's not for another 2 years.)

uugh bap, I'm sorry, that's the worst! I can only imagine what our side neighbors think of all the crying that goes on at our place, plus bonus added shouting at the older kid who looooves to act totally bonkers whenever the baby's having a hard time. Even worse is our downstairs neighbors are close friends of our for many years and I'm sure they hear everything like Sierra's little 20 minute screaming fit at 5:30 this morning...and unfortunately they've been trying for a few years for a baby of their own and have had a couple ectopic pregnancies, so I feel like we're constantly reminding them of their troubles.

Today's vent: Nanny overslept so I had to bring Malka to an eye doctor appointment I had before work and he was going to meet us there, didn't get there until my appointment was way over (which meant he was an hour and a half late in total). Did not have the calm morning I had planned on!

One of the ladies in our wardroom had a neighbor call the police on her while her husband was at sea because she had a baby "crying inconsolably." Her just-shy-of-2 year old was teething and cried for about half an hour until the Tylenol kicked in. By the time the cop got there he was fast asleep. Luckily the policeman who came to the door had kids himself, I guess, and rolled his eyes at being sent out there.

Anyway, bap, I hope your landlord gets over it. Nobody wants to listen to a baby crying, but we don't always get what we want, eh?